Clarkson PLC AGM Statement (6470M)
May 08 2015 - 7:05AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMCKN
RNS Number : 6470M
Clarkson PLC
08 May 2015
8 MAY 2015
CLARKSON PLC
("Clarksons" or "the Group")
AGM STATEMENT
Clarkson PLC (Clarksons) is the world's leading shipping
services group. From offices in 20 countries on six continents, we
play a vital intermediary role in the movement of the majority of
commodities around the world.
At the Annual General Meeting to be held in London today, James
Hughes-Hallett, Chairman of Clarksons, will make the following
trading statement covering the period from 1 January 2015 to 7 May
2015:
Trading Overview
Overall, Clarksons has made a solid start to the year in the
face of a number of material headwinds. Shipping and offshore is a
multi-cyclical business and the challenges witnessed in a number of
our markets at the end of 2014, arising from a demand supply
imbalance and the reduced oil price environment, have continued
into the first half of this year. Whilst no business is immune, the
breadth and depth of our best in class fully integrated offer
positions us strongly to meet these challenges. The acquisition of
RS Platou ASA ("Platou"), which completed during the first quarter
extends our integrated offer still further and in more challenging
markets it is this market breadth which ensures that where there is
activity, we are at the forefront.
Integration of our two businesses is continuing as planned and
we are pleased with the progress being made. As we identified at
the time of the acquisition, the businesses are extremely
complementary with very little overlap and we remain confident that
the acquisition will accelerate our strategy to provide clients
with a market-leading integrated offering across Broking,
Financial, Support and Research.
We are now rebranding our broking and financial services
operations as "Clarksons Platou" to reflect the strength of both
brands in their market places. Our support and research businesses
will continue to trade as Clarksons, testament to the longstanding
heritage of the Clarksons brand in these markets.
Broking
Dry Bulk markets remain severely under pressure with the Baltic
Dry Index down 56% and reaching a 30 year low in February 2015. In
the offshore markets, the depressed oil price has forced operators
to review their strategies for the year and we anticipate this will
result in a slippage in activity into the second half of 2015. Our
Tanker and Specialised products teams have seen increased activity
levels, our S&P team remains active across the sectors and we
continue to develop our already strong position in the container
market where we see long term opportunities.
Financial
The acquisition of Platou's investment banking and project
finance business transforms the scale and shape of our financial
operations and our combined teams are now focussed on leveraging
the substantial opportunities this brings. Activity levels in the
capital markets were generally quieter in the first quarter,
however they have now started to improve and we are currently
working on a significant number of live mandates in restructuring,
public and private equity financing, M&A and general
advisory.
Support
Our port services business has delivered a steady performance.
Dry bulk shipments at UK ports have seen continued improvement but
as anticipated, our northern England and Scotland offshore oil and
gas related revenues remain suppressed, with activity levels still
low.
Research
We have seen a good performance across our research business
with an increase in sales during the period.
Outlook
The near term industry outlook remains mixed and the challenges
in some of our markets continue. The delivery profile of our
activities in broking and financial will result in a weighting in
performance towards the second half of the year. We do however
anticipate further growth in activity levels in a number of key
areas of our business.
Our strategy has proven to be robust in this trading
environment. We have a unique, market-leading offer and with the
acquisition integration progressing well and with the strong
balance sheet underpinning our business model, we have confidence
in Clarksons' continued progress in performance.
Enquiries:
Clarkson PLC:
Andi Case, Chief Executive
Jeff Woyda, Finance Director 020 7334 0000
Hudson Sandler:
Andrew Nicolls
Kate Hoare
Katie Matthews 020 7796 4133
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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